How a house with 120 flats turned its concrete-covered courtyard into a lovely garden

(Magyar nyelvű változathoz görgess lejjebb)

Peeking in to the secret life of historic houses may hurt some peoples privacy but it’s eventually an interesting thing to do. If you are in Budapest and walking in the districts you are most likely to see parked cars, broken pavements and garbage bins behind the gates of old buildings. The deprived glory of the wonderful works our late architects gave us is part of the bitterness of urban life we are all familiar with.

But there are plenty of places were this bitterness turns into something upliftingly great. And not because of the conservation of some magnificent architectural works.

There’s a 120 year old house which like many old buildings in the neighbourhood, has two big courtyards for the many residents living in smaller and bigger appartments. But this building – unlike the ones in the neighbourhood – shows a bright example on how a community can bring life these grey-coloured, unfriendly courtyards they are using day-by-day.

The idea was simple and great in the same time. Younger residents thought that they change those unliving courtyards into a community space. They only needed some plants, colourful bricks to pave the ground and some other facilities like something to sit on, a small playground for children and bike racks for those who used bikes to travel around the city.

It seemed so easy, but the project required a lot of work energy to be invested in.

“Our neighbours were sceptical about the idea”

– says Zoltán Erdős, one of those new residents who promoted the gardening project. “The idea belongs to Szilvia Kauker, a young ladscape architect, who moved in 9 years ago” – he adds. Their biggest struggle was to win the support of those who couldn’t imagine that things can change, I learned from Zoltán.

After several meetings, long hours spent on planning and discussing, they found a tender announced by the Council of Budapest. Zoltán submitted an application which finally won half of the construction’s costs.

“Many people were engaged from the beginning, but most of our neighbours were uninterested. Finally lots of them found themselves painting and planting when things turned real”

– Zoltán reckons.

The involvement of the community did not mean physical work only. Those who are living on the ground floor were the most affected, so their words counted a lot in the planning period. They were concerned about how much space will the ‘garden’ take from their pathways between the street door and their flats and they wanted to make sure that the duster will stay on its place. In the beginning they were afraid of bugs flying in their homes from the new plants.

Finally all the concernes were heard and the project became community-based.

But there were other difficulties they had to face. As Zoltán remembers the hardest part after winning the neighbours and the tender was to find a construction company which could fit the works in to a very short deadline. The recycling of some wood materials and the ‘used’ soil they got from another house helped them a lot.

“It is a completely different feeling now”

This is how Zoltán sums up the biggest changes the reconstruction brought in their lives. “From the upper floors it looks really “extra” – he adds.

The sad courtyard turned in to a colourful garden and residents are now using it as a community space where they can meet and chat. The bicycle racks they bought two years ago are full now, which shows that more residents started to use bicycles in their daily commutes.

Extension is on the way

Since the house has two courtyards but they only had the financial background to rebuild one, it was time to continue. The success of the first phase convinced the residents to apply to a new tender at the City Council. They won again. With the money they get from the City Council completed with their savings, the second courtyard will feature new facilities they couldn’t build in the first phase. This means a small playground, more plants and new bike stands as well.

The construction is starting this month and it is due to finish in June. We will be there at the opening.